Soarin'

Future World, Epcot

Soarin' is a 180-degree IMAX projection dome and aerially captured footage that reproduces the flight path of a hang-glider. Thrill as you're lifted 40 feet in the air, surrounded by stunning panoramas, swept from one scenic Californian locale to the next.

"Was not worth the wait" 5 months ago by Savy tourist

By noon, fast passes were gone. All day the wait time was 100 to 135 minutes. We finally got in line at 6:48 pm. You would not believe how slow the line was. Our wait was close to 120 minutes. Lots of fast passers kept merging in, slowing down the line. The fast pass line should be shut down at 8pm, given the huge wait we had. It was a good show but not worth the wait.

"Awesome ride" 1 year ago by Claudia

I visited all four parks this week and I must say this was one of my favorite rides! Get a fast pass as it is a very popular ride.

"I should have checked first" 2 years ago by Scaredy cat

I was dumb and did not heed the warnings that were posted about those who are afraid of heights should avoid this ride.Because I did not heed those clearly posted warnings, I was literally TERRIFIED. and shook up for several hours afterwards.

I can ride in a plane just fine or anything else that is enclosed but I could not handle the fact that my feet were dangling in mid air or that we were just barely strapped in with a seal belt that only goes around the waist and yea, that it was 40 feet off the ground. Some day someone is going to faint and fall out, or a child is going to flip out of that thing and potentially die. A bar across the front of us like most rides would have helped, along with something to hold onto when the movie makes us dizzy.

I also wish there was an option to sit on a bench on the floor like they offer at Universal Studios for some of their rides or a nice safe balcony because the movie and scenery looked gorgeous , at least on those brief moments when I was able to peek with one eye open. I would have loved to have seen the whole thing b/c I love California. I hate that I am afraid, and that there are so many rides that deal with heights. No fun for us chickens.

For those of you who are not afraid of heights, this ride /movie experience is so worth the wait. My family thinks its the best!

"Breathtaking!" 2 years ago by Goofy5745

This is the most amazing ride I have ever been on! Being lifted so high makes it feel like you truly are flying! I love smelling the pine trees as it makes it seem even more real! We were lucky to get fastpasses for this a couple weeks ago. When we went it seemed like we not going to be able to get any. Luckily a elderly couple stopped and gave them to us! This is a ride that I would ride over and over again! This is something I look forward to every single trip! Sorain rocks!

More Information

Soarin', located at the Land Pavilion in Epcot is a motion-base simulator attraction combining physical motion, in-theater effects, and IMAX film.

The attraction sends guests on a sweeping flyover above the wondrous Golden State for a birds-eye view of the rich landscape and topography. "Soarin’ Over California" will be the newest addition to The Land pavilion at Epcot, complementing the popular pavilion’s agriculture and ecology theme.

The unforgettable experience combines cinematic artistry and state-of-the-art motion base technology. Guests are literally lifted 40 feet inside a giant projection screen dome and completely surrounded with the beauty and wonder of the state of California as their elevated theater seats take them on a scenic tour over the Golden Gate Bridge, the Redwood forests, Napa Valley, Yosemite and more. The free-flight experience intensifies as guests feel the sweeping winds and smell fragrant orange blossoms and pine trees around them.

The making of Soarin' - facts and info

Great Hall: Before boarding, guests pass through the Great Hall where five of Earth's biomes are depicted in 20-foot-wide panoramas, along with interesting facts and quizzes displayed on large flat-screen monitors. The featured environments are: polar ecosystem, mountain ecosystem, desert ecosystem, rain forest ecosystem, temperate (deciduous) forest ecosystem.

Flight experience: A breathtaking glide over the majestic and diverse natural wonders of California

Duration of ride: The Soarin' experience, including pre-flight briefing, is ten minutes. The Soarin' flight lasts approximately five minutes.

Ride system: Walt Disney Imagineering-developed motion-based technology, the original ride inception was based on an erector set model created by Imagineer Mark Sumner. One million pounds of steel provides the ride structure and 37 tons are lifted during each ride cycle.

Height guests are lifted into screen: 40 feet

Total number of guests per each ride cycle: 87

Queuing options: Standby line, singles line, FASTPASS

Height requirement: At least 40 inches tall.

Accessible: Guests in wheelchairs must transfer from their wheelchairs to experience this attraction.

Producing the Film

Because airspace inside national park boundaries is protected, it took several months for the film crew to obtain permission to fly a helicopter into Yosemite National Park. The last time a helicopter was permitted to fly through Yosemite was in the mid-1900s, when a flood had closed the park to visitors.

Though it may be hard to see them, mountain climbers in the Yosemite sequence are making their way along a cliff face before the waterfall comes into view. The six members of the Yosemite Mountaineering School spent an entire day before the shoot placing pitons for handholds and footholds during filming. While the shot was being set up, and in between takes, the climbers literally "hung around," suspended from the cliff by ropes. One climber clung to the cliff for about six hours before the shot was ready to go.

Because of the status of Monterey/Point Lobos as a marine sanctuary, it took a year to obtain all of the necessary permits to film that sequence. One of the boats in this shot is a NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration) boat, whose job it was to monitor marine animal and bird activity during filming. Fortunately for the animals and the film crew, the shot was pulled off without disturbing any of the protected sea otters, sea lions or brown pelicans.

The scene in which guests go soaring over the USS Stennis aircraft carrier as it heads out of the San Diego port is unusual in that all of the Navy jets and helicopters can be seen on the carrier. Normally the carrier offloads all of the aircraft as soon as it comes into port. When this scene of the film was shot, the vessel happened to be making a quick turn-around and had not had time to offload the aircraft. The USS Stennis is the largest aircraft carrier in the Navy's fleet weighing in at 97,000 tons with a flight deck area of 4.5 acres.

There is a scene in the film in which horses and riders gallop through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Prior to filming this scene, the crew was required to hire an archaeological team to perform a biological and paleontological resource assessment. In other words, the team hand-dusted the area from Fonts Wash to Fonts Point -- a four-mile stretch of trail -- in order to be sure no artifacts would be disturbed by the horses and riders.

In the Anza-Borrego shot, the Thunderbirds fly over the horseback riders. Many meetings with Air Force personnel were required to set up this shot. Flight paths for both the Thunderbirds and the helicopter film crew had to be carefully charted and arranged. The jets travel so fast that they would not be able to see the helicopter in time to avoid intercepting its flight path. Timing its departure and GPS location very precisely, the helicopter departed only a few miles from the filming rendezvous point, while the Thunderbirds took off from Nellis Air Force base, near Las Vegas, more than 200 miles away.

Lt. Col. Brian Bishop, the Thunderbirds' lead pilot, uses the code name Be-Bop. The lead pilot for the Thunderbirds may hold his or her position for no more than three years, and Lt. Col. Bishop's participation in the filming of this sequence for Soarin' constituted his final flight as commander of the Thunderbirds.